Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
62. The Best Games of 2021
0 Playsin 7 hours
This week, Midnight and Hodge talk about their top 8 favorite games from 2021! Where does efootball 2022 rank?
Time Stamps
00:00:00 - Show Start
00:05:11 - Hodge’s #8
00:08:07 - Midnight’s #8
00:12:30 - Hodge’s #7
00:15:00 - Midnight’s #7
00:17:05 - Hodge’s #6
00:21:11 - Midnight’s #6
00:23:10 - Hodge’s #5
00:28:19 - Midnight’s #5
00:31:05 - Hodge’s #4
00:32:59 - Midnight’s #4
00:36:42 - Hodge’s #3
00:40:39 - Midnight’s #3
00:45:20 - Hodge’s #2
00:48:06 - Midnight’s #2
00:49:54 - Hodge’s #1
00:52:06 - Midnight’s #1
00:57:26 - Honorable Mentions
Follow us on X/Twitter
Podcast - http://www.x.com/gameoverplastic
Midnight- http://www.x.com/midnightdt
Sean- http://www.x.com/seanlikestobake
Hodge- http://www.x.com/hodgebaba57
Video and Audio edited by: Hodge OR Midnight (episode dependent)
Intro and Graphics by: Hodge
Intro music created by: Hodge
Recommended
Transcript
Welcome Back and Episode Overview
00:00:39
Speaker
And welcome everybody. This is Games Over Plastic, episode number 62. i am Midnight, as always, joined by my amazing co-host, the man, the myth, the legend, the master of graphics, the Buc-ee's fan, and unfortunately the Bears fan.
00:00:59
Speaker
Yeah. Hodge, how you doing, sir? I'm doing good. Happy we're back. Sorry, if we missed last week because bunch of stuff happened in everyone's lives and we're just like, you know, we're just going take the t week off. So it's the first episode we missed, unfortunately, or fortunately, first episode we missed, but happy to be back. Sean, unfortunately, though, cannot join us again this week.
00:01:19
Speaker
He said he will be back next episode. So hopefully we'll have him, all three of us back together and But yeah, I'm ready to talk some vidgie games. That's right.
00:01:29
Speaker
And talking video games is what we're going to do
Top Eight Games Format Introduction
00:01:32
Speaker
today. This is going to fun one. I'm really looking forward to this one. We have our favorite games from 2021. We're going to rank them. We have our top eight is what we're doing. And I have some honorable mentions, too. so we're going to rank from eight to one the very best. And this was a good actually a pretty good year. Like there were some good games that came out in 2021. So I'm pretty excited to go over these ones. I think it's going fun.
00:01:53
Speaker
Yeah. oh yeah're and we' Normally when we do these episodes, we do top five. But since Sean's not here, we're screw it. Let's extend it. We'll do top
Podcast's Gamer Philosophy and Accessibility
00:02:00
Speaker
eight instead. So we're doing eight games that we love from this year. Extends.
00:02:04
Speaker
Hell yeah. Was that like a pill? I don't know. I think that was a pill that allegedly would extend your member, which are you know that those that shit doesn't work. Yeah. Well, I'm pretty sure they have those commercials during football. So at least you're not weird for knowing that because it's always football always has the boner pill. Yeah. Oh, Yeah.
00:02:23
Speaker
The boner pills, man. And now they always got the, what is it? We're not a sponsor, of course, but there's what that hymns or whatever website. Oh, yeah yeah, yeah. That website for men's health. yeah Anyway. I forgot about that. Not a sponsor. All right.
00:02:39
Speaker
Anyways, guys, this is Games Over Plastic, the podcast for the agnostic gamers. No
Games of 2021 Focus
00:02:44
Speaker
console wars. We just chop it up and have fun. Talk about gaming. You can find us every week. Usually
Coin Flip for Discussion Starter
00:02:50
Speaker
sometimes we take a week off. It just depends, but usually every week on YouTube and full 4k video glory at youtube.com slash at games over plastic. You can also find us on all audio platforms, such as Spotify, Apple podcasts, over overcast, pocket cast everywhere. Just look for games over plastic.
00:03:10
Speaker
Leave us five star ratings if you're on those audio platforms. That really does help us out. And if you're on YouTube, please leave us likes. Please subscribe. And if you have comments, please leave them in the comment section. You know, we read those. And if you have write-ins for the show, leave your questions and stuff. And we may use your write-in on a future episode. All right. you could You could be on the show with us. All right. So just leave a write-in.
Number Eight Game Picks: 'Alan Wake Remastered' and 'Mass Effect Legendary Edition'
00:03:33
Speaker
But with all that said, my cat's excited to get this started. um Let's go ahead and I guess we can ah we could just get into this here. Yeah. Right into the topic, huh? 2021 video games. So, you know, we had did decades before, right, Hodge? But we're doing the years now because we didn't get a chance to really do these because...
00:03:57
Speaker
We had started the podcast right then and it wasn't a full decade. So we were like, well, yeah, just so we did for those who are maybe new or just didn't listen to me. Yeah, we've we did decades. So we did 90 to 99, 2000, 2009, 2010 to 2019. And we started this podcast in 24, 23, 24.
00:04:10
Speaker
twenty ten to twenty nineteen and then we started this podcast in twenty four twenty three twenty four 24. Yeah, because we're not 24. And so we didn't get to do 21 through or 20 through 23. So we figured, hey, we'll just devote episodes because these have been banger years. So we might as well.
00:04:29
Speaker
you know, talk about these games that came in that little space between. So, Oh, yeah. So let's determine the order. Let's see if we can do something fun here. This will be interesting. Let me see if I can ask live on air. We're not really live, but you get the point. um Let's see if we can ask Google's AI to flip a coin for us. So and let's see. You want heads or tails?
00:04:52
Speaker
Heads always fails. So you want tails? No heads. You want heads. Okay. So if it's heads, you'll go first. If it's tails, I will. Okay. Hey, Google. Flip a coin. Come on, AI. What are you doing?
00:05:08
Speaker
Heads. Did you hear that? yeah All right. Hodge. Congratulations. The power of Google Gemini AI has selected you. So you get to go first with your number eight game.
00:05:18
Speaker
All right, numero eight. I put this at eight, even though it's not my eight favorite game of this year, but just because it is a remaster, but it's not a port, it's a remaster. So I'm counting it as a game. And that's Alan Wake remastered. Obviously, as everyone knows, I adore Remedy and Alan Wake and all of that stuff. So Alan Wake remastered, even though I will say maybe it does deserve number eight, because even though I love Alan Wake, it is hardly a remaster. It looks like an x Xbox 360 game. Like like when when we see like like even like The Last of Us Part One, when that came out, that's a remaster. I mean, a remake remastered.
00:05:58
Speaker
It's always whatever term, but even though that's a remake, it looks way better than the PS4 version. So the PS5 last of us looks way better. And there's other games like that where they've given it like the full, you know, overhaul. And this one, it was, it just looks like a port with maybe a better lighting. But so I obviously I love Alan Wake, but yeah, I'll put it at number eight. Cause one, it is remastered too. It's hardly a remaster. Hmm.
00:06:25
Speaker
Fair, fair. um I also played and beat this game recently, as you know, on the PlayStation 5 Professional. And yeah, I agree. it It wasn't much of a remaster at all. It looks... Because I played a little bit of Alan Wake back on the Xbox 360. I just didn't beat
Number Seven Game Picks: 'Call of Duty: Vanguard' and 'Lost Judgment'
00:06:40
Speaker
the game. But yeah, it didn't look much improved, honestly, from that, at least from what I remember. of course, we always remember graphics better in our mind than what it actually was, so who knows, but...
00:06:50
Speaker
Dude, if they upgraded that game to look like Alan Wake 2, that game would be a masterpiece. It was so good. It great game, though. Awesome game. Yeah. Yeah, I love it. are they are they doing i Are they doing like a film or a movie type thing with ah any Alan Wake stuff or anything?
00:07:07
Speaker
I don't think. I thought I heard something about something in their their universe, but maybe I completely made that up in a dream. Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised, but I'm honestly not sure. Because, I mean, they do do the live-action stuff in their game, so I would never be surprised if they made a live-action show, movie, whatever. That's something that I think would translate really well to ah to film or TV.
00:07:29
Speaker
Yeah. yeah Especially like the Alan Wake side. Maybe not as much the control. The control side gets a bit more crazy, although that could still work. But the Alan Wake side is a bit more grounded, even though it is still kind of crazy. Yeah.
00:07:42
Speaker
Yeah, I feel like Alan Wake could make a great show, whereas Control would make a good movie because so much of Control is like, go to this part of the thing and undo this thing. And that's really all it is. It's mostly just like a game of fetch quests with just amazing gameplay. Obviously, the gameplay of Control is so good.
00:07:58
Speaker
But yeah, I feel like you would you could condense that story into a two hour movie. Oh, yeah. All right. Good pick. Good pick, sir. I'm going to keep that theme going a little bit. So for my number eight, I also have a remaster.
00:08:12
Speaker
Now, this is not my number eight game of 2021 because this is my number one favorite game probably of all time. Hodge, you know what it is? Oh, God. Mass oh mass Effect, ah the collection? That's right. The Mass Effect Legendary Edition. I'm going to put it at 8, just like you did, because it's a remaster, right? This this game didn't actually come out in 2021.
00:08:35
Speaker
So I'm not going to give it credit to knock off of all the actual legitimate 2021 games, because that's just not fair. Like, it already had its flowers the years it came out, right? So I'm going to put it at the honorable last place because it is amazing. But yeah, this is one one of, if not the greatest games of all time. It's a collection of three masterpiece games. One, two, and three are all masterpieces. um They actually did
Game Deals and 'Resident Evil Village' Discussion
00:08:56
Speaker
upgrade the graphics quite a bit and the gameplay, especially on one.
00:09:00
Speaker
Yeah, that's what heard. Yeah. two and three already played and looked
Appreciating 'Halo Infinite' and 'Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy'
00:09:05
Speaker
pretty pretty decent um but one yeah one needed some love yeah because i've i've only played one well i did start i i played a good amount of two but i fell off of it for whatever reason but i will get back to it one day i will get back to it one day i promise it's i didn't fall off of it because i disliked it i was busy so i just got i distracted yeah yeah and it was one of those things that i don't want to go back to it after so long and be like i don't like so So I'm going to have to restart it one day. But no, the first one, i loved it. And when people are like, yeah, it has all this quality of life. I'm like, I guess it kind of shows because it it does definitely have the, you know, Xbox 360, PS3 kind of jank, quote unquote, to it. But it still plays. it It was very fun. I love the first one. So I will definitely play two and three eventually. But yeah, that first one.
00:09:49
Speaker
and s effect is awesome like they give you like serious choices if you remember like you had to yeah which without spoiling anything too crazy like you had to pick who to save and then had a big choice at the end with the council and like that actually affects the story going forward yeah and yeah and that yeah people people don't i mean obviously people who are fans of it understand it but so it's it's hard to real like really think about how those games interact with each other is s insane because i remember when i started to it's like do you want your save from one to you know, pass on with it. And everything goes based on what you did in the first game. And that's such a cool concept. Yeah. Stuff you did in one will will rear its head and show up in three. Like it's it's really cool.
00:10:28
Speaker
Yeah, that's awesome. and And people complained a little bit about the ending because they didn't tie up everything absolutely perfect. But it's dude it's three games that had like 70 choices that you made and they did the best they could. I think they did a great job. A lot of tons of your choices really had serious weight and they pay it off with cut scenes and moments and stuff. And it's it's awesome. So I'm really excited for you to actually get back to it one day. and And I want to hear what you think. So, but yeah, Mass Effect Legendary Edition is amazing. For some reason, if you guys out there have still not played Mass Effect, you got to play it, dude.
00:11:00
Speaker
It's amazing. It's one of the best games of all time. It's so good. It's peak. And it's not that long. I think the first Mass Effect is what, like 20, 25 hours, maybe? Yeah, it was pretty short. It didn't take me too long. Yeah.
00:11:10
Speaker
Yeah, none of them are that long. They're like 20 to 30 hours, probably. Maybe 40 if you're like a completionist. They're not super long. It's not like a 100-hour long JRPG or The Witcher or something, okay? yeah um I know like a 30-hour game isn't super short, but it's not the craziest thing ever either. like you know you can Well, for an RPG, that is super short to me. like yeah When someone's like, oh, you should play this RPG, I'm like, I don't want to sink $100. Like, oh, it's only 30 hours. im like Oh, sweet. but yeah yeah I can do it. If you do all the side quests and stuff, it might be like 40 hours. like it's It's not too bad. You know you can you can get it done. So I recommend to everyone.
00:11:42
Speaker
You want know what we should do before four comes out in whatever year it's coming out? yeah We should do three episodes on each Mass Effect game. I'm always down. Because then I can, that'll give me a chance to replay the first one because obviously I've forgotten a little bit. It was years ago that I played it. So then I could play all three finally. then That'll force me to sit down like, we got to knock these. games out so I'm always down, and I'm sure Locke would join us because these are some of his favorites, too. He love loves Mass Effect.
00:12:06
Speaker
Yeah, that would be that'd be a lot of fun. We'll have to we'll have to do that when we're once we have ah at least a year named for when Force comes out. I think that's still probably far away, though. yeah Yeah, we got a couple years, I'm sure. All right. Well, that's my number eight Mass Effect Legendary Edition.
Exploring Gameplay: 'Age of Empires IV,' 'Death's Door,' 'Far Cry 6'
00:12:24
Speaker
Not too much more to say about that. It's an old game. You guys know Mass Effect. um What's your number seven, sir? All right. My number seven. This is, i don't know, maybe it controversial, but as you and i and your buddy DLB did an episode on Call of Duty. yeah And this year is when Call of Duty Vanguard came out, which I actually really liked this game. I only played the multiplayer. I never played the the campaign, so I can't really talk about that. but actually I love the world war two, uh, video like call of duties. And so this one just felt so fun. Uh, it wasn't as good as the previous year was cold war. I liked cold war better, but, uh, I was off of the call of duty train at this point, basically. Cause I only got cold war cause it was a launch game and I wanted to, you know, uh,
00:13:09
Speaker
series X launch game and to see how it played and everything. But this one, actually remember buying this game. I might've told the story on the call duty episode, but for those who didn't listen to that, I was out getting like Mexican for dinner with my friends and we always get pictures of margaritas. Cause on Fridays they have like really good deals, margaritas. So we all got, you know, a little toasty and my friends are like, right, we're going home. We're going play call duty. I'm like, I don't want to play call of duty. Come on. And they're like, just buy it and play it with us. I'm like, okay.
00:13:39
Speaker
Fine. And I get home and it's on sale. And i was like, oh, hell yeah, because it only like 30 bucks. I was like, fine, I'll buy a Call of Duty. I'm feeling pretty good and I want a game with my buddies. So we started playing it. I fell in love with that game. It was awesome. And I also remember when it came out, I didn't have an elite controller yet.
00:13:54
Speaker
And so my kill death ratio was like 0.8 or something. Like it was bad. I had a really bad kid and I got the elite controller. And within like two weeks, I was already over one in my kill death just because of that shortened trigger pull and having those semi, ah semi-automatic rifles in that game. It's like the single fire rifles. It, it helps so much. And, Yeah, I got really good at this one, and i I just really liked it. I know understand this is one of the less liked Call Duties, but I really liked this game. I thought it was a lot of fun.
00:14:21
Speaker
Yeah. Call of Duty Vanguard. All right. Good pick. Good pick. I don't have much to say on this one because this was actually a Call of Duty that I kind of skipped. um i was in I was in my phase, and I'm still kind of in the same phase, like kind of like the F Call Duty phase where I'm just kind of over it. like I played it so much back in the day, and I just fell off hard. I did i think I did play the beta of Call of Duty Vanguard,
00:14:42
Speaker
And I just, I don't know. I think I wasn't feeling it too much. Yeah. But I didn't give it a fair chance, to be honest. um I do like the World War II setting a bit. It is cool. um You know, so that's cool. I'm glad you enjoyed it. um All right. So that was your number seven.
00:14:58
Speaker
Yeah. All right. My number seven is going to be a game that I've talked about before, but the sequel, Hodge. Oh, this is Lost Judgment. Now, I've told you about Judgment, right? you Remember the spin-off from the Yakuza people?
00:15:13
Speaker
Yeah, where you play as the detective or whatever, the private eye, former lawyer. Well, they had a sequel called Lost Judgment in 2021, where you're back as Yagami. And, you know, you go you have to you go to the school to investigate these this bullying situation where people are getting bullied and somebody was like committed suicide or died or something. Right. It's kind of dark. And so like he goes up there and immediately starts beating up the bullies, starts beating the shit up shit out of the high school kids. And I'm like, yeah, that's how you get results there. I love it. It's great. But then, yeah, eventually like it evolves into like this massive conspiracy as it does in these games. And it's awesome. It it was good. i do like the original Judgment more, I will say. I think the original is better. But Lost Judgment was also great.
00:15:58
Speaker
good sequel. Um, I will still highly recommend that you play judgment. Uh, I think you'll love it. And, uh, there you go. If you do play judgment and you love it, you'll have a sequel that you could get to sometime if you want. Uh, it's pretty cool. Uh, you know, this one has like a high school setting, uh, but not completely. Uh, obviously you're going outside the high school, you're doing stuff. Um, but it's about like, ah it's like, it's about a bullying thing situation with like suicides and a coverup and stuff like that.
00:16:24
Speaker
Um, But it it does branch outside of that. You got like some organized crime and stuff. I don't want to spoil things. So but yeah, it's good. The first one was better, but I did still enjoy it. um It's number seven for me, though, because there were other games that I enjoyed more.
00:16:39
Speaker
For sure. Lost Judgment, my number seven. Yeah, I'll be honest. I did not even realize because I remember watching a review, I think, for this game. And so I always just assumed Judgment and Lost Judgment were the same game. Oh, yeah. Because I don't know anything about RGG games. So I just always assumed they were the same game. But apparently I am wrong. so no Judgment is the
Highlighting Creativity: 'Psychonauts 2' and 'Tales of Arise'
00:17:00
Speaker
first one. And then Lost Judgment is the sequel.
00:17:02
Speaker
That makes a sense. There go. All right. What's your number c x Number six Resident Evil Village. o good one.
00:17:13
Speaker
Yeah. so I obviously, as people know, have been fairly new to the I mean, it's been now six years, but I was new to the whole Resident an Evil verse because I didn't play them at all as kids. The first one I played was two and I didn't play that until or the to remake which I didn't play until 2020. So yeah, I'm coming up on six years of playing these games. And ah village was always one. i actually didn't play this until last year, i think actually, because I talked about it on this podcast. So um yeah, I just finally got around to it last year because I was always a buy these games on sale. I mean, I buy most games on sale. It's rare that I buy like day one games anymore. ah But
00:17:58
Speaker
Yeah, it's probably 30% of my games I own I get on day one just because some of them obviously I'm hyped for, but some I'm just like, eh, I'll get it later when it's cheaper. so ah So that was this one. I bought it on sale later, but I actually loved it. ah As we know, as we've talked about, Requiem is the only one I bought day one, which and which was worth it because that game is amazing. But ah Village, I really love this game because I love the setting. It's like that kind of medieval-looking town. There are some really dumb...
00:18:28
Speaker
I always say that like Resident Evil for as cool as it is, there's a lot of very like derpy Japanese kind of like what is happening kind of stuff going on. And in this game, there's like a guy who has Magneto powers. Then there's obviously Lady Lady D, the big, tall Amazon woman and her vampire ladies who follow her. Like there's very weird stuff in this game, but I absolutely adore it. And yeah,
00:18:52
Speaker
It's not my favorite Resident Evil game, but I really love this game. And I played it in first person because that's how the game was built. They added a third person mode later, but it got really because every time you would go into a cut scene, it would switch to first person. And it was just so i was tired of it switching back for. So I just stuck with first person the whole time. But yeah, Resident Evil Village, ah fantastic game. Everyone should play it if you are a Resident Evil fan.
00:19:16
Speaker
All right. Yeah, that's a game I do want to play at some point. You know, I want to play more Resident Evil games. Yeah. But I want to space them out because want to play too much Resident Evil games because they're kind of spoopy and creepy. Yeah. um And just a little unsettling. And it's not like I said, it's not the type of game that I want to play like back to back or play all the time. But I like them and I want to play them occasionally, you know? Yeah, for sure. So Village is something I want to play. That's ah that's a good pick. I think that's cool. um Yeah, and as far as games on sale, I'm with you, man. I'm addicted to it.
00:19:45
Speaker
i like i have I set up my wish list on Steam and PlayStation and even on Xbox, even though I don't really buy games on Xbox these days. Yeah. And i'm I'm constantly checking my wish list on PlayStation and Steam, even though i've I have no intent to play these games right now.
00:20:00
Speaker
Like I'm addicted to the thrill of finding a game that I want to play at a rock bottom price. And I just I just want to buy it. I'm like, a great deal. I'm play this soon. It's great. Like collecting them, you know? Yeah, dude, every single time, if I go on the PlayStation store and like spring sale up to 75% off, I'm like, oh, I'm there. And I scroll forever through that because especially because obviously they do it to where like the more newer games are up at the top and they're only like 10% off and you're like, whatever. But you keep scrolling. And there's so many times I've bought a game that I have either wanted to play so badly or I'd love and I just don't own anymore. And you'll see it down there for like 90% off, $3.99. I'm like, oh, yeah. And I... I buy it every time. I'm like, I did that with this last sale. I bought so many games that were under $10 because once you keep scrolling down that thing, you find them and they're dirt cheap. like, I've been waiting for this game forever. Hell yeah, I'm buying this. So yeah, sales for sure. Like, I honestly, I almost I almost check my wish list daily because I'm just constantly, come on,
Surprising Favorite: 'MLB The Show 21'
00:21:00
Speaker
man, where's a good sale? I want to buy something cheap, even though I'm current. I currently have too many games to play right now, but I just it's about the collecting and getting a great deal. There's a thrill to it. So, yeah. All right.
00:21:11
Speaker
My number six. This one's for Steve. Our boy, Stevie. Halo Infinite is my number six. That's right. It came out this year. And this would probably be ranked higher if I was a big Halo fan in the modern era. You know, I loved Halo back in the day. Oh, Halo 3. I played a ton of that. So much of that. But, you know, Halo these days, it is great and I still do respect it. But I just don't play it that much of it. But, yeah, I played a bit of Halo Infinite with my friends, DLB and others. And it is a great game.
00:21:43
Speaker
It's a really fun game. um I had a lot of fun playing it with my friends and, you know, shooting people up I did not play the campaign, actually, so I can't speak to that. Maybe the campaign is good. I've heard mixed things about the campaign. I've heard it's all right. I've heard it's maybe kind of a little bit. I heard the open world's maybe kind of bland.
00:21:59
Speaker
I have heard that. But ah but yeah, the the multiplayer is fun, man. like The combat feels great. The world and the... Or not the world. The combat, the maps are great. And like just the the feel. They nailed the feel. It feels like Halo. The controls, the bounciness, you know the jumping, the floatiness, the aiming, at the guns. Everything feels perfect like Halo.
00:22:19
Speaker
And it's a lot of fun to to just shoot people, to get in the vehicles, to grab the rocket launchers and the snipers and the BRs and just blast people. ah It's good. Halo Infinite. That's my number six. I am a casual. I will admit I'm a casual. If you look me up, I don't have a ton. I don't have massive hours on Halo Infinite. Like I said, I just I don't play it as much as I nearly as much as I used to. But I did play it, you know, a fair bit with some friends and I definitely enjoyed the time that I had on it.
00:22:44
Speaker
So. Yeah, um I'm just trying to pull up to see what my
Honorable Mentions: 'Forza Horizon 5' and 'Final Fantasy VII Intergrade'
00:22:50
Speaker
play time is really quick. Because I know I've played a decent amount, but it's probably not like insane. Yeah, I've only played four days worth of so...
00:22:59
Speaker
however many hours that is 96, 90. I think I had four days, two hours. So yeah, 98 hours I've played, put into it, but which I will move on to Halo. Halo infant is my number five oh um because yeah, I, I really, I love this game. ah The campaign. Yeah. It's, it's better than five because five is one of the worst campaigns I've ever played.
00:23:22
Speaker
ah And, but Halo Infinite, they basically scrapped everything that happened in 5, because if for those who don't know, 5 ends on a cliffhanger, and that cliffhanger is never resolved, because everyone hated that campaign so much. that they just said, fuck it, we're moving on, now we're doing something different. So ah the gameplay was a lot of fun in the campaign, but yeah, it was an open world and it was all
Game Recommendations and Conclusion
00:23:45
Speaker
the same looking. There was nothing, there was no difference in world. Like, obviously, as you know, you play open world RPGs all the time. Even on a map that's not enormous, there's still like, you go to a snowy mountain area, you go to kind of a desert area, you go to like a a fields or a forest, or there's always difference. And in this game, there is no difference. It's all open,
00:24:07
Speaker
You look like you're going walking through like the Midwest, basically. like That's all it is every Every single thing. There's there's nothing new. So ah the story was all right. It wasn't amazing, but it was it was better than I thought it was going to be.
00:24:21
Speaker
ah But yeah, really the shining light of this game is the multiplayer. It is so much fun. It plays so well. I still go in sometimes my friends and will play Tactical Slayer, which is what used to be called SWAT. They have this one game called...
00:24:37
Speaker
Oh, something like it's like Fiesta mode or something. I can't remember what is it or party party Fiesta. I can't remember, but it's basically a mode where you're playing capture the flag on this really short map. And every time you die, you get ah random weapons. And so, so you want to try and obviously if you come to life and you have like the rocket launcher and the short sword, you want to try and stay alive because you can get around destroying people with that. But then you would die and then you come back with like the needler and a pistol. you're like, damn it.
00:25:05
Speaker
So yeah it's it's just a really fun game mode. But really, my only complaint is as someone who does still hop into infinite here and there, they've added so many maps that that you don't even get, like, the old maps anymore. Like, and then a lot of them are just, like, they've taken old maps and then they put, like, a Japanese skin on it where you, like, look like you're in like a dojo. And I'm like, why is this the map? world Like, that's, like, so many of the maps now. And so that's really my, like, complaint is I don't think they've...
00:25:37
Speaker
I don't think, well, and it's really slow to find a game. So like there's just like these little minor things about it, but the gameplay itself is unbelievable. I think the live service aspect of the game is still pretty crappy. It's obviously way better than it was. It was horrible when it launched, which is what killed the game. But obviously you can progress or your battle passes way easier now. But yeah, back in the back when it launched, it was bad. only thing reason it kept stayed alive for as long as it did was because the gameplay is so good. But the live service part of it isn't that great. I think more people play Master Chief Collection than Infinite online still. Like if you look at the Steam charts or whatever, I'm pretty sure more people are Master Chief than Infinite. so
00:26:18
Speaker
I think this game is way overhated, even though it did get an 88, if I remember right, on Metacritic. like it was still It was loved at the launch. I think there's been a little bit of revisionist history of people being like, no one likes this game. No one's ever liked this game. like It was a yeah big deal when they shadow dropped the multiplayer. like This game was loved for quite a while. It's just kind of the Xbox Series X hate train is you yeah full swing. Yeah. I think there's been a little bit of revisionist history on people not liking this game.
00:26:46
Speaker
ah But yeah, it's it's as of 2026, it is an overhated game. it is It is a very, very good game. and That's why I have it at number five. Yeah, i think I think actually them shadow dropping this game was a mistake in hindsight because it shit all over Forza Horizon 5 as well. It kind of ruined Forza's moment because Forza came out and everyone loved it and then like what, like three weeks later they're like, Halo! It's like, okay. um And also they could have used a couple more weeks maybe to polish and stuff, but
00:27:18
Speaker
um Yeah, i actually, I looked my playtime actually is is a lot lower than I thought it was. And I i realized I misspoke. I did not play this game with my friend DLB because he doesn't have Xbox. And I tried to get him to get Xbox. And, you know, he but he's on PlayStation. He wouldn't get an Xbox. And if he had Xbox, my playtime would definitely be a lot higher because he's my shooter bro that we always yeah play with. But. ah But yeah, the the hours that I did play with like just random people and I think I played with, ah I think I played with the Spank Bank one time was fun. So Halo Infinite, there you go.
00:27:52
Speaker
Yeah, if they would have waited till Forge was ready and then launched it, oh, people would have been super happy. Oh, yeah. That would have resolved any of the map problems because people could just make whatever they wanted. you know Yeah. Yeah. Well, what is cool, though, is I know some of the maps, if I remember it, I could be wrong about this, but I want to say that when you load into some maps, it'll say like created by because they just put Forge maps in multiplayer way if they're good enough. So, yeah, it's pretty cool.
00:28:18
Speaker
All right. My number five is going to be Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy. This is Lockmore's number one game. I asked him ah in DMs. I was talking to him and he said that was his 2021 game. Guardians of the Galaxy. This was a fun game.
00:28:34
Speaker
I played and beat it. Shout out to Game Pass. And I enjoyed this game. You know, this game came out and a lot of people were kind of scared to play it because Marvel's Avengers game was so bad. yeah Right. It was terrible. So when this game came out, not that long after people were like, I'm not going play another Avengers. People didn't realize that this was actually a good game.
00:28:53
Speaker
um It was a good game. ah You know, it had a good story. It had pretty fun combat and it was just goofy and funny. And and I had a good time with it. I did not have a game breaking glitch. Luckily, like some people might've. And yeah, I beat this game.
00:29:07
Speaker
I enjoyed it. I think it was a solid, you know, eight out of 10. um So that's my number five, Guardians of the Galaxy. you know If you're a Marvel fan and you haven't played this, I do recommend it. um I don't think it's a life-changing game. Like I said, I think it's like 8 out of 10, but I like it and I enjoy it. So there you go.
00:29:24
Speaker
Yeah, i I really liked this game from what I played. i think we said this off camera, not recording. Yeah, we did. I liked this game a lot. I, too, expected it to be very bad because Avengers because that game was... I didn't play it, but the gameplay I saw, it looked bad. it looked really bad. But I really like what I played of this. But yeah, there was one point I had probably played it for 10 plus hours at this point. and i there's this planet where, i don't know, there's like a vending machine. And for those who haven't played it, they're like, you know, if you're if like like if you're in your ship, like you're constantly closing the kitchen the door on the fridge, which is really funny. he's Just a stupid little joke like that. But you can go around and interact with people like on your on your crew. And so I was on a planet and Drax, I think it was, was standing over by like a vending machine.
00:30:15
Speaker
And when I went over to talk to him, my game auto saved and it did the dialogue. And then I just couldn't lead like uninteract with the thing. And I was frozen at this vending machine.
00:30:27
Speaker
And so i was like, what the hell? So I quit. i close the game i open it up and i'm still there i've uploaded the save and everything it just saved me there stuck on this vending machine and i was like oh my god and i i think i had other games to play so i was like screw it i'm just done with this game like i'm i'm not doing this like i got so angry with that so maybe one day i'll go back and actually finish this game because it was good i i did really like this game so Maybe one day, but for now, I just, I had to rage quit because that glitch angered me so much.
00:31:00
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Well, that does suck. Yeah. All right. What was your number four? Numero quattro is Ratchet and Clank Rift a fart Apart. i This game, I don't think it's as good as the 2016 Ratchet and Clank that was on PS4, but this game was one of those first games that showed like how powerful the PS5 really is and how good it runs and everything. Because also, again, we've said this before, but Insomniac with whatever engine they use, like their in-house engine, they are so good with it. that This was one of those games where you could run it at 60 with RTS on. And it was so, so cool. or RTX, I should say. And it it was, I mean, obviously everyone knows I'm a huge platformer. I actually never played Ratchet and Clank games growing up. I was always a Jak and Daxter guy. But 2016 sold me so much that I played this one. And again, i i love this game. I just think 2016 is better. But this was a fantastic platformer shooter. The guns are always so goofy. Like, you turn you can you shoot your enemies and they turn into, like, 8-bit pixelated characters and stuff. Like, it's really, really interesting stuff. The story, i honestly don't really remember it that well.
00:32:14
Speaker
I know there's the other... the The ratchet, the female ratchet and everything. But what I like about this game was the gameplay was a lot of fun. It it wasn't as memorable as, again, 2016, but this game was still a lot of fun. It was gorgeous. it was ah And it was just a really it was a really good showcase on what the PS5 could do So, yeah, I just i love Insomniac other than the game that I'm still trying force myself to play, even though i hate it. and But other than that, Insomniac makes very good games, and this is one of them.
00:32:46
Speaker
All right. Well, there you go. Yeah, I've never played that game. I haven't played any of the Ratchet and Clank games, actually. um But good pick. Good pick. um All right.
00:32:59
Speaker
My number four. I was trying to look up and see if I could see how many hours I had played on the stupid Xbox PC app, but it's not showing me. Hold on. Let me go to my library here.
00:33:11
Speaker
ah Well, on the app on the phone, if you click on the achievements, it'll say stats and you click on stats. That's how I always look at it. Yeah. Because, yeah, if you go to like the achievement list.
00:33:26
Speaker
ah All right, cool. Found it. I have five days played. So that's pretty good. Nice. guess like what, 120 something. So. Not bad. Not bad.
00:33:37
Speaker
The game, by the way, is Age of Empires IV. Yeah. On the PC. Age of Empires 4 was awesome. I played this a lot. I really got into this. I was playing competitive ah versus other people online even. It was pretty good. i I got ranked up into like gold or whatever, which is like the middle tier, whatever. I wasn't the best ever. If I had stuck with it, I might have been able to rank even higher. But eventually I got a little bored and moved on. um But yeah, it was a lot of fun. You know, there's a lot of different civilizations or whatever. They don't call them civilizations. But you know what I mean? i was I was really enjoying playing as China and playing as the other different factions and stuff.
00:34:17
Speaker
But you know, it's a fun, it's a real-time strategy game where you pick your you're starting faction and you start from the bottom. You start at age one where you're like, you know, like a peasant and like kind of like the stone age and You know, you got to quickly build out some houses and do some farming and then you eventually age up to the next one and then you build some, so you know, barracks and an archery range and this and then you age up again and then you start cranking out some soldiers and then you start exploring and attacking your enemy and then you build some research and stuff and then you eventually you age up some more and you build more powerful soldiers and you rank them up and then you you destroy your enemy basically.
00:34:49
Speaker
And it's great. It's a lot of fun. I played a lot of it. Like i said, 120 some hours had a lot of fun playing this game uh china was definitely my favorite playing as uh song dynasty china china china uh song dynasty china man they had like these uh these crossbow soldiers i forget what they were called man but they were pretty powerful you got them in age two with the song dynasty uh and man you you get a whole bunch of them and then roll into the enemy base and they would just wreak havoc dude it was great uh and yeah i had a lot of fun also you could play as a
00:35:21
Speaker
Holy Roman Empire, HRE, and you can kind of like rank up to age three really fast with them because they got a lot of gold they could get a lot of gold quickly. And then you could kind of like, there were strats where you could like rush enemies and stuff if you if you did the right build order correctly. And there was just a lot of stuff, man. You could play as like the Russians and you could play as all kinds of different civilizations. And it was great. The English had their long bows and the French were pretty good, actually, believe it or not. Surprisingly, they didn't just surrender.
00:35:49
Speaker
Uh, the French had their, uh, oh, chukanoos. That's what the, uh, the Chinese, uh, crossbow men were called, but yeah, the French had like these awesome, like crossbow men that also had shields and stuff that were pretty sweet. Uh, but yeah, awesome game. Age of empires for really enjoyed this game a lot.
00:36:06
Speaker
So shout out to that. Yeah, I've never been a big RTS guy, so I've never played any of these, but I i know they're beloved from what I've seen. like and i like I know it's not and they're not the same game, but also I know people like love Civ, whatever, Civilization. So I know people love these kind of games, but yeah, I've never been a big RTS guy, but I'm sure i wouldn't be surprised if That was one of those things that if I started playing, I got really addicted to like for, you know, creating everything. But yeah, I've just never gotten into RTSs though, but happy you enjoy it.
00:36:40
Speaker
Thank you. Thank you. What did you enjoy at number three? My numero tres is a game that I feel like people don't talk enough about this game because it's fantastic. And that is Death's Door.
00:36:54
Speaker
ah It is like it is this Zelda like kind of top down action game, but it's very difficult. It's like I mean, not very difficult. Obviously, I beat it, but ah it's I can't remember if it's like a rogue. No, it's not. It's just actually the crow game. Right.
00:37:12
Speaker
Yeah, you play as this bird with ah with a sword and you go around. And one, it's a beautiful game. I absolutely love this artwork. It is such a gorgeous game, but it was just insanely good. I remember I beat it right before. Like, I literally got the... the Not the platinum. I think I beat this on...
00:37:31
Speaker
Xbox. I'll have to look. But I remember I beat it just before leaving to go to a LSM event because I remember i was talking to Sean about it a little bit. But ah yeah, this game is just absolutely fantastic. And um I know it was it was pretty well received when it came out. i don't remember what it like rated, but ah it was it was a beloved game that people really spoke highly of. But I just feel like it's kind of fallen off of the um
00:38:02
Speaker
like fallen, like people don't think about this game that much, which sucks. Cause it's a gorgeous game. It's really fun. Yeah. It has an 88, 99% of critics recommend it. So like, it's, it's a very well-renowned game, but yeah, people don't really talk about it, but it is a absolutely fantastic game that I think everyone should play. i know. I think I played it. i probably did play it on Xbox. I probably played on game pass, but which is why I would have tried it. Cause I wouldn't have tried it otherwise, but um yeah, I don't,
00:38:30
Speaker
i can't I can't say enough good things. Oh, no, I didn't get the 100%. I'm missing three achievements because they're probably really hard. So if I remember right, one of them was like beat the game with like your starting weapon or something like that. Yeah, beat the game only ever using an umbrella as your melee weapon. Yeah, not doing that. So, so I didn't get the, I didn't get all the achievements, but yeah, this game just absolutely fantastic. If people like those kind of, it's not top down, it is top down, but it's like at the angle.
00:39:00
Speaker
I don't know what that, what those are called, but yeah, it's a, it's an amazing game. and i think everyone should play it. So death store. All right. Yeah. I never played death store. Um, actually,
00:39:12
Speaker
But I did play the game that followed it that was a Zelda-like game, which was Tunic. Remember that one? Tunic, yeah. Yeah, and that game was too difficult for me, dude. I know. like I was getting my ass beat.
00:39:22
Speaker
Yeah. I was was so excited. I'm pretty sure Sean loves that game. I wouldn't be surprised if that would have been on his top if he were on this episode. Sean's a Chad. Yeah. That was next year. That was a 22 game.
00:39:33
Speaker
Oh, was it 22? I saw it. It's right next to it on my achievement. Literally, it's Guardians the Galaxy, Death Store, then Tunic, and then Bugsnax. But that's my order of games in my achievement list right now. But yeah, i'm I'm pretty sure Sean loved Tunic. I wanted to play that game or I did play it, but it was so hard that yeah it was dropped it But Death Star, it was a tough game, but I just loved it so much that I was like, I don't care. um It was so good. Like there are those games occasionally where it's like, I don't care how hard it is. I'm in love with it and I want to beat it. And we're unlike that sounded wrong. ah I, I,
00:40:09
Speaker
but ah like, unlike, like souls, likes have never grabbed me. Like Liza P was ah difficult, even though I was playing it on baby mode and I just didn't like it. And I dropped it. But some of these games where they're really tough, it it pushes me to want to actually get better and beat it. And that's yeah what that store was.
00:40:27
Speaker
All right. All right. Well, good pick, sir. Even though I didn't play it, it looks beautiful. Looks like something that would be really fun for people who want to have that Zelda-like crow adventure.
00:40:39
Speaker
My next game, my number three, this one here is another special for the haters. The haters out there. What can the haters do, Hodge? Hate. The haters can suck it. That's right. no no one that's so That's what the haters can suck it. This is for you guys. Far Cry 6.
00:40:56
Speaker
That's right. This game is good, and I don't care what you haters say because I enjoyed this game. Me and Colin Moriarty, we love this game. I have ah probably 100 hours on this game. I beat the hell out of it. This is a great game. I don't know what you guys are talking about. Is it Far Cry 3?
00:41:11
Speaker
no But nothing is. I like it more than five, honestly. I think it's great. I think Giancarlo Esposito was good in there as the villain. um i just think it's awesome. I love the setting, you know, that ocean, but tropical ocean vibe. It's basically Cuba. You're going around this Cuba, and you get to blow stuff up and liberate it. You take over the island piece by piece. You take over his capos, you know, his his captains or whatever, and and slowly take over the island. The characters and voice acting were good and fun. Dude, there were ah these animal monsters that you could, like...
00:41:46
Speaker
tame or or or whatever and like they would fight with you and they were f freaking awesome there was this giant rooster named Chicharron that would just go in and shit up dude he would just go and destroy people it was ah it was hilarious and then there was like this awesome like jaguar that was like stealthy that would go and mess people up too like you had to like complete a quest to earn them um And my favorite thing, too, was like you could fly around the map. um yeah I had this like you could get like these flying like these makeshift like helicopters. It was like, I don't know, it was like a bike or something that had like a ah hover thing on the top. It was really cool. And yeah, you just fly all around the map and then land and then blow up all the enemies and take over the base. Dude, this these games are just about fun. It's a big sandbox for you to go around, take out a base, blow stuff up and just check all check boxes.
00:42:32
Speaker
Kill stuff, blow stuff up, check boxes. And it does have an awesome story. Like the main story is pretty cool where you, know, you take over. There is like a fake ending where like ah you could just basically like nope out of it and get like a bad ending right away. You could just leave and go to like Miami and like everybody dies and stuff while you're chilling on the beach. It's pretty funny. um But no, it's it's good, man. I had a lot of fun with Far Cry 6. I enjoyed it quite a bit.
00:42:56
Speaker
um And I can't wait for Far Cry 7 if they're even making one. I mean, I assume they are. i haven't heard anything about I don't I like Far Cry, dude. I've played three, four, five, and six. I need to play Primal. I own Primal. I need to play it. But shout out to Far Cry.
00:43:10
Speaker
And the haters, you know what to do. didn primal ah Didn't Didn't it reuse a map or something? like it's Yeah, they that they took the map from four and they just kind of reskinned it a bit. um and that's And honestly, that's fine with me. There's nothing wrong with the map from four.
00:43:27
Speaker
Yeah, our buddy Pweb, he's a big fan of Primal. He played it. But um yeah, I completely forgot this one existed, honestly. The last one I remember was 5, where it was like that cult thing.
00:43:41
Speaker
That's good, too. Yeah, I forgot about this one. But Far Cry, it's one of those that I've always debated getting into. But at the same time, I'm like, yeah, 3. I know that's the one that everyone everyone loves. Yeah, to do 3 is amazing.
00:43:54
Speaker
Yeah, it's one of those that's like it'll probably it'll forever be in my backlog and maybe one day I'll get the itch, but it's not something going to like prioritize over stuff. But it always looks like a cool series for sure.
00:44:06
Speaker
I have a prediction. They will remake three at some point. They have to. It's just too, but it's too beloved. It's to everybody in the world and their brother and their sister and their mom who doesn't even play video games loves, loves Far Cry three. It's basically like Black Flag for Far Cry. And they're remaking Black Flag.
00:44:27
Speaker
So it's just, it's a no brainer. It's a money printer. They will at some point remake, ah Far Cry 3. And when they do, boom. You're in there. It's going to be great. Dude, that game is incredible. It's so fun, dude. The missions are awesome. Vos is the best villain, one of the best villains of all time. Citra, the chick that you work for, she's hot.
00:44:47
Speaker
You know, you got titties on display. What... what's What's not to love, dude? It's awesome. It's a beautiful setting. It's a beautiful world. It's a beautiful story. It's even fun with the hunting, dude. Like, you out there and you hunt, like, these rare beasts, like a white a white tiger or something, and then you skin them, and then you get to create something useful out of it. You get to create, like, a holster that lets you have another gun or something. and like So they give you a reason to actually go out there and hunt this rare tiger. Like, it's it's awesome. yeah Far Cry 3, titties on display. Titties on display. Best villain ever. What's not to love, dude? It's great. so there you go. All right. Number two for me.
00:45:23
Speaker
just fell Kitty is a big fan of titties on this display, by the way. Hell yeah, who isn't? Number two for me is Psychonauts 2. Obviously, this is a double fine game. ah They are owned by Xbox, and but this game was created before the acquisition and before, obviously, Xbox One third party. So this was on, p s I think, PS4 even and PS5. I think this was on the one and PS4, but...
00:45:50
Speaker
ah This game came out. I had just recently played the first Psychonauts before that and ah absolutely loved it. And then this one is just even better because obviously it's more modern. The first one was on OG Xbox, whereas this is a Series X slash... 1x game but i absolutely adore i think i bought this actually on ps5 i was gonna or else it was actually think it a game of gold or a ps plus game but i'm gonna play this game again because i absolutely love it obviously everyone knows i'm a huge platformers fan so psychonauts 2 uh the only annoying thing about this game is it is one of those things where to like get the 100 you have to collect everything and each level has like hundreds of things to collect so it it it gets a little annoying there but granted it's not like everything's hidden a lot of stuff is just out out in the open but uh it's just such a cool game it's very like tim burton-esque the the game or the the art style and everything uh which is why when double fine had their showcase game a few months ago i got so excited like are we getting psychonauts 3 and then it was that fucking kiln game i'm like uh
00:46:55
Speaker
kill itself I was going to say something about that. I bet you're excited about their their next game. kill him I think it came out already, actually, if I remember right. But maybe I saw some people were playing it. i don't know if it's out or maybe they just had like a like early access or our beta. I don't know. Yeah. Like i so I think I said this when we did the showcase that it looks like a game that's very fun.
00:47:13
Speaker
if you are playing with your friends, but it's, but if you're just playing randomly online, I would have no desire. But if it's one of those where you can get a group of people to play together all the time, I i feel like it would be fun because Dolphin's a great studio. So I have no doubt that the kiln is at least going to be like a competently put together game. It's just, it doesn't have enough to to grab me, but Psychonauts 2 did. That game was amazing and I can't wait to play it again one day, but.
00:47:40
Speaker
Everyone who hasn't, please play Psychonauts too. Please do. Please do. I haven't played it. ah It's like a platformer, right? Yeah. Yeah. So I don't i don't know.
00:47:52
Speaker
But ah it looks cool and I know people love it. So that's great. And shout out to Kiln. Shout out to Kiln. Game of the year coming up. Yeah. All right. It does look fun if I had friends, maybe, but I don't. So sad.
00:48:06
Speaker
This next one's for Sean. Shout out to Sean Mason. We love you. Tales of Arise came out in 2021 and I beat it recently. And this is one of the best JRPGs I've ever played.
00:48:18
Speaker
And I love it. This game is awesome. I love the characters. I love the story. I love the combat. Everything about this game is incredible. The characters are incredible. I had a blast with this game. It's one of, it's literally one of the best, like I said, JRPGs that I've ever played. It's easily in the top, I'd say three.
00:48:35
Speaker
Um, I'm really excited to play more Tales games now. Like I want to, Sean wants me to play Tales of Exilia remaster. So I'm looking forward to playing that soon. But yeah, Tales of Arise is incredible. And I recommend it to anybody who likes action RPGs or JRPGs or whatever, because you you go around and you mess people up with the sword and you got some magic and you know, it's got, it's got similar to final fantasy 16 kind of like combat a little bit where you got,
00:49:02
Speaker
your party, um you know, you you can kind of switch and combo their abilities and stuff, and you but it's action combat. And then it's got a cool story with cut scenes and voice acting, and you go from zone to zone, and it's a bit it's a bit like a semi-open world, too. you There's some side quests in the open world, and it's great.
00:49:20
Speaker
I love it. Tales of Arise, highly recommended. I even played the DLC, too. The DLC was decent. It was all right. I didn't mind it. But it's not a must-play. But it's not bad.
00:49:32
Speaker
So there you go. I don't Not too much more to say about that. I don't want to spoil anything about the story. It's a it's an it's an RPG. You got to play it.
00:49:42
Speaker
Tales of Arise. Nice. Yeah. Obviously, i have no experience with those games and I'll probably never play them. So fair enough. Fair enough. I respect that.
00:49:53
Speaker
Um, but my number one game of 2021, the best game that I think I played of that year. ah no surprise. There's a sequel coming out this year to it. And that is Kenna bridge of spirits. I absolutely loved this game. Uh, for many reasons, obviously one, it's very, uh, artistically gorgeous game. I love the look of that world. Obviously for a long time, it was the best looking game on PS five, uh,
00:50:24
Speaker
Eventually some games have looked better since, but. At the time, this game was amazing. It's done by an animation studio, so every single cutscene just straight up looked like a DreamWorks movie. like The graphics were so beautiful.
00:50:36
Speaker
um The gameplay, it's very PS2 platformy, puzzler kind of game, which I love, obviously, as anyone knows who knows me. ah but So, yeah, Kenna Bridges Spirits is by far my favorite game from 2021. I absolutely adored every moment of this game, and I cannot wait it. for the sequel this year.
00:50:57
Speaker
I will be playing that day one for sure. Yeah. Good one. Good one. I like it. You convinced me to play this game. I played it for you. I'm such a good friend. You know, I play these games just for you. I do it.
00:51:10
Speaker
um You know, I played, well, actually control was a gift, I think actually, yeah but I played Alan Wake just for you and I played Kenna just for you and there's other stuff I'm sure. But I enjoyed Kenna. I thought it was a good game. um I am looking forward to the sequel, too. Although not day one. like I'm not going to pay full price and play it day one, I don't think. I'm not that into it. But I will play it later when it's on sale or when it gets thrown into a PlayStation Plus or something. like i I'm definitely going to play it because I enjoyed it. It's a beautiful game, like I said, that animation and the graphics. The characters are pretty cool. The world and the combat was pretty fun. The puzzles actually weren't too bad. um Yeah, yeah i just I just like it. It's it's a very charming game.
00:51:49
Speaker
Even though it's a little bit weird and spoopy at the same time. Not really spoopy, but you know what i mean. They're dealing with a little bit of ah little bit of creepy stuff. But yeah, it's good. I like Kena.
00:52:01
Speaker
Good pick, sir. All right. Good for you. My number one pick is another game that I have talked about before. So I'm going to keep this a little bit brief.
00:52:12
Speaker
ah Nobody probably saw this coming, I don't think. I was a little bit surprised by this, but my favorite game of 2021, believe it or not, actually, was MLB The Show 21.
00:52:25
Speaker
I'm a little bit surprised, but this was the first year it came to Xbox. It was in Game Pass. And i could jumped in and I played the hell out of this. I had hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of hours. I'd have to look on here and see exactly how many hours I had of this. But I've mentioned before about how you know I got absolutely hooked on um Diamond Dynasty mode and about how I would just grind the hell out of that mode, just making like a super team game.
00:52:51
Speaker
And how like, you know, like you start off with with like these, these weak ass players, right? There's all these different modes to play. There's moments where you go in and it's like just a quick challenge where you hop in. It's like, you have to hit a home run with, with Lou Gehrig or whatever. So, you know, you to that. And then you get like a challenge. You either get currency or maybe you get a card. Right. And then there's a mode where it's conquest. It's kind of like,
00:53:12
Speaker
risk it's kind of It's like a map where you kind of conquer the map. And the more that you control, you get more armies or whatever. And then you take over the map. And once you as you take over certain nodes, maybe you get a pack or two that you can open and get cards in. and You get like various free packs and rewards. And then at the end of it, they have like a big reward, like a big diamond card, like a high diamond card that you get for free.
00:53:32
Speaker
And then they have a battle pass, but not ah not a paid battle pass. It's completely free. There's no option to pay at all. it's just It's just rewards for as you play. It's a season reward. And at the very end of the season, just from playing the game, like you get your choice between three like completely stacked 99 diamond cards that are awesome.
00:53:51
Speaker
And it's just awesome. And like, there's just showering you with these diamond cards. And then you could also play online head to head and there's rewards for that. And it was just so much fun collecting these cards and building the best team and playing online and beating people. Oh, I had some amazing games online against people. This game also had a stadium creator, which was super fun. I made this awesome stadium that was like on the beach and had like a UFO in the outfield that was like sucking up like a cow. And then I had like a dinosaur out there and it was pretty cool, dude. And it was fun, dude.
00:54:22
Speaker
It was just a lot of fun playing this game. Just like I said, just constantly being rewarded for your gameplay and not having to spend any money. I don't think I spent any money at all other than, well, I didn't even buy the game. It was on Game Pass. So shout out to them, you know? ah But yeah, i mean,
00:54:37
Speaker
it's just a great game. Um, sadly I didn't play this year's game because the reviews have been really bad. Like people are not messing with this year. Um, and I just decided that, I'm going to skip this year too. So, but and MLB, the show 21 was an amazing time, an amazing game.
00:54:54
Speaker
Um, I wanted to see actually how much time I have on this game. Um, So, but let me see. I know you haven't played this game and you have no interest in playing these games. Do you? I actually did play 21. Oh, you did. um i didn't play it a lot, but I did because it was on game pass. I was like, I'll give it a try. Cause I'd never played one before. And I only played it for probably a couple hours. I probably played just a couple of games, but it it was cool. I mean, I know I understand why people love these games. It's just,
00:55:25
Speaker
I'm not the biggest baseball fan, so I was like, eh, whatever. But I hopped into it, and yeah, it was actually pretty fun. Not enough to get into it as much as you did, obviously. But yeah, I actually thought it was pretty cool, and I was happy I at least gave it a shot because, again, yeah, I'd never played an M.O. The last last baseball game I had played before trying 21 was, I believe was and believe it was Ken Griffey Jr. Baseball.
00:55:50
Speaker
and it was ken griffey jr baseball i think I think that was the last one i played. Let me see. Ken Griffey Jr. N64.
00:56:02
Speaker
Oh, my God. Here it is. MLB The Show 21. You probably can't see this, but I'm going to show my stats here. You probably can't see it. Can you see that?
00:56:14
Speaker
Is that 16 days? 18 days, 23 hours, and 8 minutes played. I told you, this game, I swear to God, this game stole my life. dude How many hours is that? I don't know. got to get the calculators out.
00:56:27
Speaker
That's 19 days, basically. 19 times 24. Do the math for us. But, dude, oh, my God. 1924 is 456 hours. So 455 hours. 455 hours of and MLB The Show 21. And you see why I've intentionally avoided playing these games now for a lot of these years, because i there's no time to play other games when you're playing 450 hours of MLB The Show. You know what i mean?
00:56:55
Speaker
Yeah. What a game, though. That's my number one. I'm closing in on 2000 hours in Fortnite. I just looked it up just to see. I'm at 82. I'm closing on 83 days.
00:57:06
Speaker
Very nice. Very nice. But yeah. but Yeah. MLB. Nice. Yeah. It it was called m major league baseball featuring Ken Griffey Jr. It was an N64 game. That was the last baseball game I played before MLB. Yeah.
00:57:22
Speaker
ah That's funny. All right. So that is our top eight games there. I had some honorable mentions as well. Forza Horizon 5 is an honorable mention. I didn't play it But it got a 92 on Metacritic.
00:57:39
Speaker
It looks incredible. And I did play Forza Horizon 4 a bit. So I kind of, I get what these games are and it looks great. I just, I don't know. I just didn't really play it, but it looks awesome. So it's an honorable mention. I'm sure it was a lot of fun. You played it a little bit. What did you think?
00:57:54
Speaker
Yeah, it was it was another one that I thought was pretty fun. it was a game obviously Game Pass game, so I hopped into it just to give it a try. And yeah, it was it was fun. It's just, again, another game where it didn't really hook me like to keep playing. But i it's another one where I could tell, like, oh, I get why like race carve or like race game fans like this game. But it was gorgeous, too. That's the biggest reason I played it. It was a beautiful game. So, yeah.
00:58:21
Speaker
All right. And then the last honorable mention for me, of course, I would be remiss if I did not mention my beloved, yuffie yeah final fantasy 7 integrate dlc came out in 2021 hajj as we know and this was a little dlc that came out featuring the one and only yuffie kisarage and it was a fun little story right little four hour story or something that all featured her amazing combat i love her combat dude oh yeah the elemental juggling is so fun and it also featured that really fun uh uh side game which uh what was it called again it was like ah
00:58:58
Speaker
You know where you're like attacking. It was like three lanes where you were attacking with the cards or whatever with like little monsters. What was that? Let's see. Intergrade side game.
00:59:10
Speaker
It was called Fort Condor. Fort Condor. Fort Condor. Yeah, I played a lot of that. It was a lot in decks and stuff. Yeah, they had in Rebirth also. That's right.
00:59:21
Speaker
Yeah, a little bit in Rebirth. It was kind of off the way off to the side. But yeah. But no, that was my that was my only other honorable mention too because, yeah, it was the DLC and they remastered it for PS5, basically. it was It was basically a PS5 port that added the that Eufy DLC. But i obviously that's how I played it because same when it came out on PS4,
00:59:43
Speaker
I was just waiting for it to come to Xbox. And then when they announced to Integrate, I'm like, oh, I guess it's never coming to Xbox. And then, of course, now it has since. But it's too late. I've said this before, which sucks because like my whole thing was like bring everything to Xbox because that's where I want to play it. But ever since Xbox went third party, I'm mostly on my PlayStation. And so then bringing it to Xbox, I was like, well, it's too little too late. like I'm not going to play Final Fantasy XVI or Final Fantasy VII there because I'm already playing it on PS5. There's no point in me switching. So...
01:00:13
Speaker
Yeah, but integrated, it was fantastic. Obviously, final Fantasy Remake is an amazing game, and Rebirth is even better. So, yeah, that was definitely an honorable mention for me as well Heck yeah. Yeah, this was back in 2021. And in 2021, was borderline X-Bot back then still. Like this was back when Xbox was releasing games that were exclusive and were good. And they actually had hope. Like I we actually i actually thought like Xbox had a chance to to take the lead or at least like at least creep up on Sony's, ah you know, dominance. But we saw how that went.
01:00:46
Speaker
couple years later, they're completely gone. They're third party. And now I'm ah now I'm kind of like a Sony pony. Now I buy all my games on PlayStation or Steam. so But anyway. Yeah, Xbox is basically my backlog and Game Pass machine, which yeah I need to play Replaced soon because I saw that that came out finally, and I'm so excited to play that.
01:01:06
Speaker
Yeah, I saw Locksman play on that. Yeah, so... um Yeah, im im I'm exactly the same as you, by the way. I also didn't play Final Fantasy VII when it first came out on the PlayStation because I was like oh, I'll play it on Xbox later. But yeah, i eventually I did play the you know the remaster with the Eufy DLC on PS5. So there you go.
01:01:25
Speaker
All right. Well, do you have any other honorable mentions or anything else you want to go over on these? No, when I was looking through the lists online, i i was like, oh, I
Port Challenges and New Game Dilemmas
01:01:34
Speaker
love that game. Oh, I love that game. oh i love And then I realized that almost all of them were ports to PC or Switch or Xbox Series X or PS5. I was like, oh, these are all older games that just being ported. Never mind. it was actually kind of tough to find some games for this list because, yeah, there were so many just ports.
Must-Play Emphasis: 'Death's Door' and 'Mass Effect Legendary Edition'
01:01:51
Speaker
yeah All right. but yeah So just to wrap up this segment here before we get on out of here, Hodge, I'm going to go ahead and have you pick one game from your list or honorables um that you want to tell the audience that they have to play.
01:02:04
Speaker
app They have to stop whatever they're doing and play it or else you're going to show up to their house. You know what I'm going to say this just because, again, as I said before, I think it's not talked about enough, and that's Death's Door. Everyone should play Death's Door. That game is so, so good.
01:02:19
Speaker
All right. Good pick. ah My everybody must stop what they're doing and play this game or else we're going to show up to your door. It's Mass Effect Legendary Edition. That's right, baby. If you haven't played Mass Effect yet, fix your life. What's wrong with you?
01:02:34
Speaker
Exactly. Shaking my head.
Episode Reflection and Sean's Absence
01:02:37
Speaker
All right. Well, guys, I think this has been Games Over Plastic, episode number 62. Why don't we go around and do some final thoughts?
01:02:47
Speaker
Hodge, what are your final thoughts, sir? Yeah, um I love doing, obviously, as everyone knows, I love doing these lists. Oh, my glasses are falling off. ah And i love I love talking about games that we love. So doing these lists of our favorite games of different years or genres or whatever, i always love doing these. So love talking games with you. Hopefully we'll have Sean join us again soon. And obviously Locke says he wants to be back on the show at some point. So hopefully we'll have Locke back for some fun stuff and oh yeah other guests here and there. But...
01:03:15
Speaker
Especially Sean. Just want Sean back. want to Want the trio back together. So I'm hoping he's feeling better soon so that he can yeah join us again. But yeah, no no doubt the show is infinitely better when Sean is with us. um So thank you guys for bearing with just Hodge and I, though. We know the product isn't quite as good without Sean. We recognize that. But he should be back for the next episode. He did. He did say that. And hopefully that is the case. You know, he's been going through a lot and we love him.
01:03:42
Speaker
But ah
Final Thoughts and Goodbyes
01:03:43
Speaker
my final thoughts are go play Mass Effect. Shout out to Yuffie. he yeah And haters, you can suck it because Far Cry 6 and Far Cry in general is awesome. This has been Games Over Plastic, episode 62. I am Midnight. This is Hodge. We're going to get on out of here.
01:04:02
Speaker
Goodbye. Bye. Quip. Quip, quip, quip, quip. We love you, Sean.